CHAPTER 16: BEYOND HIS CONTROL

Traveler’s Cabin

Since the travelling group didn’t have quite as long to walk today than they did the last two days, it meant that they didn’t need to be up as early. However, a certain automaton had awakened at exactly seven in the morning to the early sun shining brightly on the snow outside. Mike looked inside the fridge and found chocolate chip pancake mix, synthetic bacon strips, white eggs that, curiously, were too small to realistically belong to any bird pokemon, and shredded cheese. Some quick calculations on their part showed that there would be exactly enough to feed all of the other pokemon staying in the cabin, much to Mike’s delight, as they wanted to surprise their companions with breakfast. The robot pulled out the food items and got to work.

The first one awakened by the scent of bacon cooking in the oven was Ryan. The second thing that the eeveelution noticed, after the smell of food, was that his body felt… off, somehow, although he couldn’t quite put a digit on it. Although it was pretty cold, as Mike hadn’t maintained the fire, Ryan didn’t feel cold at all. He tried to get up, but the best he could manage at this time was to get into a position of lying on his stomach. His legs refused to cooperate, almost as if they were… longer? He also felt a slight pain in his side, but why?

Wait, actually, I do remember that, Ryan thought. That zorua headbutted me, and that’s the last thing I remember before I blacked out… wait, if I blacked out there, in the snow, then how am I…

“Mike!” Ryan whispered, trying to get the robot’s attention as it whisked the eggs in order to scramble them for omelets. Fortunately, the cabin was all one room, so there was no wall preventing them from hearing him.

The metang stopped whisking the eggs and turned to Ryan. “Oh, master Ryan, you’re awake!” they said mechanically.

“Yeah, I am,” Ryan answered, “but please don’t call me ‘master’; it makes it sound like you’re my slave.”

“My apologies, Ryan,” Mike replied as it resumed whisking the eggs, adding the cheese into the mix. “How are you feeling?”

“My side aches a little bit from that zorua’s headbutt, but it’s not bad enough that I can’t take the last leg of our journey. But then, there’s the rest of my body… something doesn’t seem right about it.”

The metang tensed up. It carefully placed the bowlful of raw egg and cheese onto the counter before it continued.

“Do you not remember what happened last night?”

“I… think so?” Ryan said. “Let’s review. We saw that zorua and chased after it, then a zoroark- probably the zorua’s mom- appeared and threatened me… then the zorua headbutted me and… that’s all I remember.”

“There’s more,” Mike said. “After that, I entered attack mode and retaliated against the mama zoroark with a powered-up flash cannon.”

“Oh my goodness!” Ryan nearly shouted. “Is she okay?”

“She appeared to be, despite taking the brunt of the attack to protect the zorua. Then, I found you next to the ice rock, unconscious.” Mike avoided the part that they feared would upset Ryan, but the fox put two and two together on his own.

“Wait…” Ryan worried, his ears falling. “You don’t mean…”

“I’m afraid I do, if you’re referring to what I think you are,” Mike said.

“Get me a mirror,” Ryan said, starting to get a bit upset. “I need to see if you mean what I think you mean.”

“Affirmative,” the metang answered before reaching into Lena’s bag and grabbing it out. They held the handheld mirror out at arm’s length so Ryan could look at his reflection. It was then that Ryan saw that his reflection was not that of an eevee, but of a larger, icy blue fox, a glaceon. He had done the very thing that the others still assumed he wanted to do least; he had evolved.

At this revelation, he did what any reasonable pokemon in his situation would do: shout very loudly in frustration.

The volume alone was enough to jolt Ben awake, causing the litten to jump off the couch face first right onto the hardwood floor. He then jumped up to his feet, not even noticing the frustrated glaceon muttering to himself to not panic, or the oddly nervous looking metang.

“Gah! I’m up! I’m up!” Ben shouted, hurriedly turning his head in every direction. “What’s the problem?! Show me!” It was then that he saw the ice fox, crouching and staring right at Ben. He was taking deep breaths, chilling the air around him as he exhaled. “You!” Ben said pointing at him. “Who are you, how did you get in here, and…” the litten looked around the room again, finding not an eevee in sight. “…what did you do with Ryan?”

A now much calmer Ryan was about to answer when Mike answered instead.

“Master Ben, this glaceon that is standing before you is him.”

Ben tilted his head to the side. “That can’t be right. Ryan didn’t want to evolve… I mean, unless he changed his mind out of nowhere. Besides, when would it have even happened? I thought he was here the whole night.”

The glaceon sighed as he sat up, as his legs finally cooperated. “Well, you’re wrong about that. Tell him, Mike.”

The robot repeated the story of what had happened verbatim, as, being a robot, they have excellent memory. Ben’s jaw dropped.

“No way, you saw a real ghost zorua?” he said incredulously. “I thought they were just a myth!”

Ryan shook his head. “Nope, they’re very real, and they can hit harder than you would think.”

“It’s a shame that you forgot your bag,” Ben said. “But, hey! At least you don’t have to worry about not evolving anymore!”

“Wow, thanks,” Ryan said bitterly. “That makes me feel so much better.”

“Really?” Ben asked, his eyes lighting up a bit.

The glaceon rolled his eyes. And I thought I had a hard time sensing sarcasm, he thought.

The litten’s ears flattened and his face fell. “Oh…”

Ryan patted a forepaw on Ben’s back. “It’s alright. Its not your fault I forgot my bag, or that I couldn’t see that zorua’s headbutt coming.”

The metang tapped it’s claws together. “While you two do your thing, I’m gonna get back to cooking. Burnt bacon is known to be dangerous for consumption, so I need to make sure it doesn’t.”

After the metang floated back to the kitchen, there was another yell of fear. This one came from a newly awakened Sofia, her back arched, hackles raised, claws unsheathed, and vines exposed.

“I-intruder!” Sofia shouted. “Ben, what are you doing?! Attack the intruder already!”

Ryan sighed. This is going to be a long day, isn’t it?

---

After explaining what had happened… again, Ryan squeezed himself behind the couch, opting not to let himself be seen before everyone else was up. This way, he reasoned, I can just explain what happened to me just one more time, probably over breakfast. Luckily, or unluckily, for him, he didn’t have to wait long.

Conveniently, the cabin’s dining table had eight seats. Ben and Sofia made sure to leave an open spot for Ryan between them for him to sit at when he was ready to show himself. After all, those two, and Mike, were currently the only ones aware of what had happened. Lena, the next one to arrive at the table, looked around and noted Ryan’s absence in the room. She thought she saw a blue tail sticking out from behind the couch, though, but assumed it was just her imagination.

“Where’s Ryan?” the sneasel asked.

“He’s… um… preparing a surprise for us!” Sofia answered. “A surprise that Ben and Mike and I are in on!” She didn’t even need to lie because she knew that when they saw him, they sure would be surprised. She only hoped that they wouldn’t attack the glaceon like she nearly had.

“Yeah!” Ben added before handing Lena a cloth napkin he found. “Also, tie this around your face. He… doesn’t want you to see before he’s ready.”

“Right, he did tell us to do that, didn’t he?” the sprigatito said sheepishly.

The sneasel took the blindfold in her claw and wrapped it around her eyes. “Okay, if you say so… I don’t know why he’s having us put on blindfolds when the surprise is probably just breakfast, but I’ll play along, I guess.”

As Quincy, Terry, and Felipe, in that order, arrived at the table as well, with Mike still in the kitchen finishing up cooking, they each took blindfolds as well. Ryan, who had been watching from behind the couch, looked out from around the back to see that nobody could see anything. He exhaled, mentally preparing himself for what he had to do.

Showtime, he thought to himself as he emerged and jumped onto the empty seat that Sofia and Ben had saved for him. The latter spoke first.

“Before you take off your blindfolds,” Ben said, “Ryan would like you to know that there are no impostors here.”

Terry snorted at the word ‘impostor’, to which Ryan shook his head in disappointment.

“Okay, but…” Quincy said, rubbing a wing with the other one. “Is it me or is it cold in here? Like, even colder than it was when we first entered the cabin?”

“I dunno what you’re on about; I’m still pretty warm,” Felipe answered.

The quaxly turned to face Felipe’s direction despite being unable to see at the moment, carefully leaning forward. “Easy for you to say, you’re a fire type!” he snapped.

Sofia groaned. “Can you two not bicker right now? It’s probably just because Mike didn’t maintain the fire overnight.”

Quincy leaned back to his seat. “Sorry…”

Everyone sat in silence around the table for a moment. Ryan’s heart was racing, and he shifted nervously in his chair.

“So, uh… what is the surprise?” Lena asked.

Doh! Ben thought. Quick, play dumb!

“What surprise?” Not that dumb! “Oh, you mean that surprise? The one that Ryan promised you about?”

The sneasel nodded.

“What do I do?” the litten whispered to Ryan.

“I think it’s time we see what’s going on here,” Terry said, reaching for his blindfold.

“No!” Ben shouted. “The surprise isn’t ready yet!”

Ryan sighed. “Ben,” the glaceon said, “I’m tired of this charade. Can we just rip the bandage off and get this over with already? Just let them remove the blindfolds.”

Each of the blindfolded pokemon removed their blindfolds and saw the glaceon, who looked absolutely done with everyone. He was wearing Ryan’s scarf around his neck, with Ryan himself seemingly nowhere in sight. Lena, Terry, and Quincy gasped, but Felipe didn’t.

“Ryan found another new team member?” the fuecoco asked, then began looking around. “Where even is he, anyways?”

Ryan facepawed, and Quincy turned to Felipe again, annoyed.

“Felipe, that is Ryan!” the quaxly said. “Either that, or that ice fox hurt him… or worse…”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake! I am Ryan!” the glaceon shouted, slamming a forepaw onto the table.

Felipe looked shocked. “That can’t be right! He didn’t want to evolve!” he said. “I would know.”

“Mike! Back me up here!” Ryan called to the robot, who had finally finished cooking and had begun to serve breakfast.

“As you wish, Ryan,” Mike stated.

As they served the breakfast that they had prepared, Mike proceeded to retell the events of last night for the third and likely not final time, as the guildmaster would still be wondering about Ryan’s evolution.

Terry shrugged. “Well, I guess that’s one less thing for us to worry about, eh?”

“To be completely honest, I was beginning to think I was bound to end up without my bag and end up evolving sooner or later anyways,” the glaceon said, trying to act like he was disappointed about evolving while clumsily attempting to pour maple syrup onto his pancakes. “Though, I was hoping to at least make past my twenty-first birthday before it happened. I am a bit disappointed I couldn’t even manage that much.”

“When is it?” Sofia asked. “I don’t actually think you ever told us.”

Ryan sighed, his newly elongated ears falling. “It’s tomorrow. I turn twenty-one tomorrow.”

Lena winced. “Uff, I bet that makes it feel even worse that you came so close, doesn’t it?”

“Mmh, yeah…” the ice fox said between bites of chocolate chip pancake. “But honestly, I was upset at first; now I don’t even care. I mean, it’s not even worth fussing over it. Should I have made sure to grab my bag before Mike and I left?” He shrugged. “Definitely, but there’s not anything I can do about it now. Sometimes, you just gotta accept that you screwed up and move on with your life, you know?”

“Ironic,” Terry muttered as he munched on a bacon slice, “considering that our, mostly my own, inability to move on is what landed us in this world in the first place.”

Quincy tilted his head. “You got something you want to talk about, Terry?”

The pachirisu shook his head, taking another bite. “No, no, it’s nothing. I’m good. But, uh, Ryan, aren’t you worried about how you’re an ice type now? Don’t they… melt? Back in Luneria it gets pretty hot…”

Everyone else looked at the pachirisu as if he was stupid, Lena especially.

“Terry… I’m an ice type,” the sneasel said.

“Wait, what? I thought you said you were dark type.”

Lena rolled her eyes, muttering, “Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up about that memory scanning machine.” She then said, “Pokemon can have two types you know; we went over this.!”

“…we did? I don’t recall.”

Lena facepalmed. “My point is that Ryan will be fine. He’s not gonna melt or anything like that just because he’s an ice type. The worst that’ll happen is his ice attacks will be a bit weaker; not that he knows any right now anyways…”

“Speaking of, you think you could teach me any ice moves?” Ryan asked. “Since I’m stuck in this evolved form now, may as well use it to its fullest potential, right?”

The sneasel nodded in response. “Sure, if we make it to Pojoin early enough today, I can take some time and teach you to use icy wind.”

Ryan smiled at this and nodded. “I would really appreciate that. Thanks!”

After everyone finished eating while Mike cleaned up, it was time for them to depart. Ryan was first out the door, making sure to grab his bag this time- tossing out the everstone as it was of no use to him now- and everyone else followed. The robot was last out the door, carefully locking the door and slipping the key beneath the doormat outside where they had found it last night. With that, they took one last look at the cabin and trudged northward down the road to Pojoin Town on the last leg of their journey.